


Darkness

by delightwrites



Series: fluffy and/or angsty mosaik ficlets [4]
Category: Abrafaxe (Comics), Mosaik (Comics)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, also what's a setting what's a premise we start this story in medias res like men, once again califax i'm so sorry, one day i will stop with the mosaik angst but it's not this day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-02-07 07:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21453976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightwrites/pseuds/delightwrites
Summary: Nothing seemed real - other than the darkness.
Relationships: Abrax & Brabax & Califax
Series: fluffy and/or angsty mosaik ficlets [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546549
Kudos: 1





	Darkness

_I’ve gone blind_, was Califax’s first panicky thought when he was thrown into the cell. Ever the optimist, he tried raising his hand right in front of his face and squinting very, very hard. To his surprise, he could make out some of its outlines. It’s just dark, he thought with a sigh of relief.

He hadn’t known yet how much pain _just dark_ could cause.

-

It’d been long, too long since they last heard of their friend but Abrax and Brabax wasn’t about to give up just yet. They paid for every bit of information they could find and after giving away Abrax’s favourite sword – his only sword, as he remarked with quite an amount of salt in is voice – in exchange for a rumour about where the men who’d taken Califax could be hiding, they had just about nothing left. Nothing, save for this last string of hope to find him.

The old, abandoned building was half in ruins and by time the two got there, it was also completely empty. Abrax had first feared having no weapon to handle whoever attacks them with, but as they walked through the quiet, empty hallways, his fear vanished, giving way to frustration.

“Nothing!” he said and kicked a can that was left on the ground. “There’s nothing here!”

“I figured that too.”

“So what are we supposed to do now? I told you it would have been better to threaten that merchant instead giving him my sword, he wouldn’t have dared to fool us, that’s for sure-”

“Hey, we’re not threatening anyone!” Brabax scolded him.

“Yeah and where did that got us?” Abrax yelled, throwing his hands up with wild gestures.“We haven’t found Califax and we don’t even have the vaguest idea where to look for him!”

“And let me guess, you think it’s my fault!” Brabax yelled back, angrily stomping with his left feet for emphasis.

The blond stopped with a deflating breath. It would have been so easy to say it was Brabax’s fault yeah, but it wouldn’t have been – strictly speaking – true. Plus, Brabax was starting to look funny in the light of the torch, his face reddening to match his hair and Abrax had to hide a childish snicker.

“What on Earth are you laughing at?” his friend tried to glare at him threateningly but couldn’t hide his curiousity entirely.

“Us,” lied Abrax. “We are ridiculous. This is ridiculous,” he said, and it was, that much was true. “We should be looking for Califax instead of-”

He shrugged and gestured vaguely to the two of them, hoping to get his point across without words.

“Instead of whatever we are doing right now…” Brabax nodded. They argued a lot, him and Abrax, they were just too different. And however hard it was to realise, it was usually Califax who kept peace between them.

“Hey-” Abrax cried out all of a sudden. Califax’s rat had vanished at the start of their argument and now she returned and tried to bite his ankle. He raised his feet before that could happen but lost his balance and ended up on the floor.

“What do you want?” he groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

He could swear the rat gave him an exasperated look before she left in the other side of the corridor, clearly expecting them to follow her. After all, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing they’d seen. Abrax stumbled to his feet and nodded to Brabax to follow him. The redhead raised a questioning eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

The rat led them to a room that was clearly lived in. And its habitants must have abandoned it not too long ago. _Perhaps the merchant really did tell us the truth_, wondered Abrax.

“They were here,” Brabax said and waited for his friend to hum in agreement. “But they left. We don’t know where they were headed from here. We are exactly where we started.”

“Oh, don’t be so sure about that.” Abrax had spotted a trapdoor on the floor, opened it and was already halfway down the stairs. “Maybe they left us some clues down here!”

Brabax pulled a face. Dark basements in abandoned houses weren’t his favourite thing.

“Come on, I need that torch!” Abrax’s voice sounded… well, it sounded confident. Like he was sure they’d find something in the basement.

And as it turned out, he was right.

-

The cell’s door opened with a squeak. The light of the torch seeping through the gap was enough to make Califax squint.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to make out the figures standing in the doorway. They couldn’t have been the people who kidnapped him, they’d left days ago – if Califax could tell the passing of days in the darkness of his cell.

“Califax!” cried out a voice. No, two voices, at the same time.

_No_, thought Califax. _Please no._

The voices were his friends’.

-

Brabax couldn’t believe his eyes. What was their friend doing here when his kidnappers had left already? Did they forget about him or-

“Califax, you are here!” Abrax yelled again and Brabax realised none of the questions popping up in his head actually mattered for the time being. His blond friend was ready to throw himself dramatically into Califax’s arms but before he could reach him, something unexpected happened.

“Leave me alone.” Califax crawled up in the corner of the cell and tried to make himself look as small as possible.

“Wha-” Abrax stood frozen mid-step and his voice choked back as he realised something was wrong with their little friend. “Califax, it’s us! We’re getting you out!”

“No-” Califax hid his face behind his knees shook his head. “Leave me alone, you are lying… You were here, I saw you and I believed you and you were lying… You’re not real…”

“But Califax-” Brabax started and took half a step closer just to jump back in shock the next second.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Their friend cried out, covering his ears with his hands and forcing his eyes shut, shaking his head violently.

Abrax and Brabax exchanged a terrified look. And it was Abrax who took a deep breath and quietly walked over to Califax, lowering to his knees by his side.

“Leave me alone…” muttered Califax weakly with shaking lips and from this close, Abrax could see his tear-filled eyes hazy with fear.

“We won’t,” he whispered and gently placed a hand on his friend’s arm. Blue eyes widened and they looked like a sky clear of clouds. “Never.”

Brabax stepped closer and knelt next to the two of them too. “Don’t even dream of it,” he said with a small, relieved laugh and reached for Califax’s hand.

-

That was all it took to break through the walls Califax had put up around himself these last few days. Something inside him shattered and he found himself weeping in Abrax’s arms, clinging into his friend’s neck for dear life with Brabax’s hand on his back.

He didn’t know how long he’d been alone in the dark, nor how many times he’d imagined his friends coming to save him. How many times he convinced himself they were here and broke when he realised they were not, that was just him in the darkness, that it wasn’t real at all. Nothing was – other than the darkness.

“Is it re-really you…?” he mumbled into Abrax’s shirt, struggling to get the words out between two sobs. “Pro-promise me it-it’s you… and yo-you're… you’re really here…”

_Please._ It had to be real. He couldn’t take it if-

“Of course we’re here,” Brabax stated and put an arm around him and Abrax to hug them. “We’re not going anywhere.”

Abrax shifted his position to get the three of them closer while still holding Califax tightly. “And that’s a promise,” he added with a sheepish smile that Califax couldn’t see but still knew was there.

And it felt real. The reassurance in his friends’ voice, the gentle rythm of their heartbeats, their arms around him. It _was_ real.

When the torch slowly died out, the darkness returned to the basement. But this time, it was the darkness that didn’t feel real.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @afuckindelighttobearound


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